In Which November Gets A Little More Play  

25.11
Had hoped to go out today but it’s raining, so everyone had a mellow day reading or watching TV. Ron says it’s been the best vacation ever, even if we haven’t done much out in Italy proper, just to get to relax and read stuff that’s NOT about enviro policy for a change!

26.11

Took a walk up toward Pietra Nera in the fog. Not super cold, so that was nice, but lots of places where The World Ends – the fog is so thick that past the edge of the road it looks like there is absolutely nothing. I tried to take pictures but my brain is clearly somehow messed up on this front: The camera never seemed to see what I saw. Maybe I should learn to paint. Of course, if I don’t learn to speed paint it won’t help – the fog patterns changed completely in the hour it took to walk up past the Allelujah and back again. By the time we got back, we were on a mountain in patchy fog, not on an island in the midst of a cloud.

27.11

Took Ron to Arquato today. We found the 12th church door and poked around inside -- beautiful! If the weather is nice Sunday I may take the girls. It was really gorgeous -- 12th altarpiece, 15th c frescoes in one chapel and 17th c paintings and sculpture in the other.  The frescoes are light sensitive, so you have to turn the lights on with 50c pieces, and we didn’t have but one. So only a quick look, but how gorgeous were they! Must go again armed with a roll of 50s! And we didn't even get into the museum! Amazing how much there is to do right here. We also had lunch in one of the restaurants, di Volpe, in the medieval town, and it was DELICIOUS (though, as Ron correctly pointed out, not as good as Trinita'). The pears in cognac with chocolate were amazing. Sadly, had to cut the afternoon short as 4 o’clock was rapidly approaching and we needed to get home before the girls.

28.11

The Facchini brothers came over and fixed the light sensor on Friday. The next day, the boiler unit started to drip. I called them again and they sent one Raimondo Ferrari out to look at it. (He sounds like an expensive sportscar. He apparently is, in fact, related to the expensive sportscars – they make them here in Emilia-Romagna, you know.) He said it was dripping because it's in desperate need of maintenance. It cost 30E to have him clean it up, but he didn't do full maintenance on it – that’s expensive, and Roisin will have to approve it. I’m letting her schedule it. The phone guy also finally showed up and Mamma called last night, so we know it works again! No further problems with the internet at all. Very happy.